Rick Wise
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Steve, I respect your work greatly. It was the “guarantees” part that caught my caustic eye. There are no guarantees about almost anything. Certainly not about the future of Vegas.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Really, ” every purchase guarantees continued and future
growth and development of Vegas Pro”? Can we get that guarantee in writing? Perhaps, “helps the chance there will be some future growth and development of Vegas Pro” might be a tad more accurate.If Magix hadn’t bought Vegas from Sony, this app would be dying a slow death. It remains to be seen how long and how well Magix will continue growth and development of our beloved NLE. Magix has a tough road ahead to get Vegas recognized among professional editors. Right now, Vegas is almost never mentioned; it’s all about Adobe Premiere, Avid, and Final Cut Pro. I suspect the next few years will be do or die time.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
I’m in the same boat, still working with Vegas 12 since it does all I need it to do. However, I am tempted by this offer from Magix. I generally upgrade only every second edition, and this offer does include a “free” version 14 when it comes out in September. The best reason I can think of to accept the offer is that sooner or later I may need to handle newer codecs that version 14 will no doubt be able to ingest. However, I am strongly tempted to wait. I’m sure there’s going to be an upgrade option when #14 comes out. We have until July 30, I think, to make up our minds…. There are many things calling for my $200.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
What ISO can you shoot at that will look good for your needs? What’s your budget? Are you really way up in the sky, as those photos show, or on the ground floor? Can you make the shoot happen on the ground floor? (Allows lights outside the windows.)
Those are just a few of the questions I would want answered before even beginning to reply to your query.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Well, gee, that’s a moment for a hoot and a hollar. But I think I’m being a bit cynical, after so many years of watching former clients in the advertising and corporate world think that with the “new” technology, all they had to do was to hire a kid out of high school to run the camera and everything would be amazingly good. Eventually those who were still in business figured out, we need someone who has an eye for color, for composition, for lighting, for ways to move-place the camera. Strange but true.
There are changes that matter. The newest cameras allow us to shoot at impossibly low light levels. There is an increasingly effective panoply of LED lights, both broads and Fresnels, that can run on batteries for long times and are color correct. I am sure I’m leaving out other aspects my colleagues here can fill in.
The history of lighting and cameras is filled with huge dustbins of old technology that now costs too much and does too little. There is an old curse that goes something like, “May you live in interesting times.” I think it’s a blessing, and we do just that.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Thank you Todd!
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
I haven’t used the Shure VP83F LensHopper Shotgun Microphone with Integrated Flash Recorder but it appears to be pretty darned good. You both record to the camera and also to it’s own card. The latter is the one you want to use, the former is to sync up this double-record. Shure makes a cheaper model without its own recording chip, but that puts you right back in the middle of your problem.
You will also want software to sync up the two sound tracks quickly, which is probably Plural Eyes.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
You could easily solve this problem yourself: put someone in the interview position at the location where you plan to shoot, or at some place similar with whatever other light is present such as daylight and/or house lamps; key-light him/her with your mixed daylight-tungsten Diva; manually white-balance to the mixed Diva; and look at the results. The subject should look “normal” since you white-balanced for the Diva which is what is mostly lighting him/her. How does the rest of the room look? Too blue? Too orange? Just right?
If just right, change nothing. If too blue, swap out the tungsten bulbs for daylight so now your Diva is 100% daylight. If too warm, swap out the daylight for tungsten so now your Dive is 100% tungsten. In either case, re-white balance to your new Diva bulbing. Check the results.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Except, your “correct” Caucasian faces would more likely be around 60-65 IRE with only spots of 70…..
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
You are right that “correct” level for Caucasian skin has changed downward. I have one old text book that says to place that skin at 80 IRE…. I have long found that when I don’t have a tech and a waveform monitor but do have zebras available on the camera, if my subject has white skin and I set the zebras to 70 and then adjust iris so that there is just a tiny hint of zebra on the hottest part of the face (usually the nose bridge and/or a tiny part of the forehead,) the exposure is “good.”
But the question brings up, what is “good” exposure? As you observed, faces can be exposed to be quite dark. It all depends on the story you are telling and the style you are using. A thief hiding in the shadow of a building would have just enough light on his/her face so we can make out s/he’s there (Zone lll,) but far from “normal/good” exposure (Vl on the face.) For a shot where most of the face is in near or total blackness and there’s a raking 3/4 back key just kissing his/her cheek, I’d expose so that cheek is at least one stop hotter than “normal.” (“Normal Caucasian is Zone Vl, so expose so that it’s Zone Vll or maybe even Vlll.)
(Wikipedia has a decent article on the Zone system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_System.)
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com